proportion, but it doesn t need to go on any longer. it can stop today. it was the republicans job to govern. it was their job to lead. it was their job to reach out to us and come up with a compromise. they have failed. president trump in the heen time largely playing spectator, except for a twooet recommending republicans change the rules to bipass democrats. let s go to capitol hill. what are you hearing? what s the latest? reporter: e we just had a chance to talk to senate majority whip john cornyn, who was in a meeting with senator mcconnell moments ago. he came out saying that i m a little bit more optimistic a deal could be reached tonight. now he did not give details, even though they were asking him for details about what gives you more confidence. cornyn just hours ago was saying he expected the government to be shut down tomorrow. so there s been a change in the
something. people may say this is just verbiage because it puts the honous now on republicans and the white house to do something about daca. now the democrats that s true because it wasn t a back-door deal that was said in private. this is something he put out before the american people. i agree with ron. it s just the nature of our government. it s often a winner take all system. the republicans control both houses of congress and the white house. if they don t want to help daca recipients, it s not going to happen. they say they want no and that s why the democrats and flake and graham were right to push this to the brink. now you re saying democrats may be overplaying. i think what you have now is an opportunity to keep the pressure on while having government function and reminding the american people
bring up his own bill. he promised to allow something to be voted on. he s already done that. he did that on the tax bill to get jeff flake s vote. they already promised there could be a daca vote. i think the bigger problem, though, is committing the house. pi think the one point of leverage democrats now have in washington is the ability to block legislation in the senate that requires 60 votes. this is it. and i think whatever happens in the senate, i think democrats are concerned they might pass a bill with bipartisan support and house republicans would refuse to take it off. there was bipartisan reform legislation passed the senate with more than 60 votes and the house republican majority refused to vote on it. so i m guessing that part of the end game here is some kind of commitment from paul ryan that the house will consider and as i said this afternoon, the ultimate end point of this, it s
house republican majority refused to bring up the bill, even though it probably had 218 votes because it did not have a majority of the majority, the majority of their caucus. i do believe that is the question looming over us at the end of the road, whatever the senate does, will the house republicans vote for dac? in the house, the parties are representing two different americans. for the people that were foreign born, immigrants are below the national average, 60% of the democrats above the national average. they represent the parts of america least touched by this issue, and it s hard to get them on the same page as some of the state wide cnn political commentator just tuning in here, david, what do you think is the democrats
commitment to move on that issue, that s been a big push for the democrats, a central demand as part of the negotiations. we don t know whether leadership u is yet on that issue. we know a senior white house aid just arrived in the capital for a briefing with senate republicans. there s a discussion happening behind the scenes moving at a quick pace. because we expect a vote could happen tonight and maybe as late as 1:00 a.m. to determine whether or not they have reached that 60-vote threshold. the moment some signs of optimism on the republican side have not heard from the democrats whether they are on board with this idea. we will get a sense if they come to the floor and tells the country bha is going on with these high stake negotiations. we do have a camera on the senate floor. we re watching and as soon as he takes the podium, we ll dip into that live. while i have you, you have been there all day trying to get a sense of where things were headed in these negotiations. what is